What is the basis of moral thinking?

Answer 1

If it has to do with evolution, why do we have to train our children to behave?

For most people, morality is a set of feelings we often call conscience or sometimes, common sense. We get these feelings from society training us from our infancy. It is in our human nature to love praise and society uses praise to train us.

We also have in our human nature the capability to put ourselves into the place of others thus making the feelings of sympathy and empathy possible. Society uses these feelings in our training.

By the time we're adults we feel bad when we misbehave and good when we do something praiseworthy. We don't need direct rewards and punishments; we have imagined praise and imagined fear.

But feelings by themselves are a very poor basis because we'll eventually see how our feelings are being used to manipulate us.

Religion is then brought into the equation. The thought is that God Himself is behind these trained-behaviors. Society is doing the will of God by teaching this or that. I think that eventually all societies have to rely on religion in order to back up their moral teachings.

The truly moral person understands all of this but also does believes in a higher moral authority, i.e. God. For God is the only possible basis for a morality that isn't based upon mere feelings.

Answer 2

Bottom line? ... Faith.

Because we are "self aware", we need to "make sense of things". We have to believe in something (faith) or we know nothing.

Sensory input leads us to make judgments and our thinking process leads us to a realization that there are inequities and we become "dualistic" (at least) in our thinking. Thus we designate up/down, in/out, right/wrong, moral/immoral, etc. We maintain equilibrium this way.

We acquire this "moral thinking" in large part through environmental awareness and acceptance.

Still, it is rooted in faith.

Answer 3

Metaphysics and epistemology combine differently within each human; but the combination always leads to psychology. Psychology begins with analyzing one's self as you see yourself performing acts during your life. This analyzing causes thoughts of ethics. "Moral thinking" is usually defined as "ethics."

Answer 4

Common sense.

Answer 5

an evolutionary pressure to have members of the pack get along with each other.